“Ideas?” Wolf asked, his gaze skirting the table.
O’Neill frowned down at the table. “The building is empty now, which simplifies things. But he has full-time security teams guarding the premises. We could break in, but we’d have to neutralize the security. Considering Nantz is missing, a security breach would be...questioned. We’d do better to manufacture a situation that will get us inside without anyone getting suspicious.”
“Agreed.” Cap bent over the laptop’s keyboard. Windows flashed across the overhead screen. “We need a non-life-threatening, building-centralized situation. One that doesn’t involve city inspectors.” He paused his keyboard tapping, leaving the latest window up. Which was the schematics of the fire safety protocols. “Like a failure in the building’s overhead sprinkler system.”
“Explain.” Wolf leaned forward in his chair, staring at the overhead screen.
“If we turn the ceiling sprinklers on and flood every floor, we could access the building for days, if not weeks, under the guise of repairing the damage.”
O’Neill grinned. “We could go in as a construction crew sent to assess the damage and make it habitable again. Which would give us uninterrupted access to every floor. Including the penthouse.”
Wolf’s grunt sounded pleased. “Are you able to access the sprinkler system remotely?”
“Absolutely.”
Nobody looked surprised.
“We will need credentials and permissions to get inside.”
Cap’s smile was slow, but anticipatory. “Leave that to me.”
“How soon can you work up a plan to get us inside?” Wolf addressed the question to Cap, but glanced toward Aiden, as though expecting him to offer...something...an observation...a theory...a fucking comment.
Aiden didn’t look up. Just sat there, staring down. Kind of like his zombie friends in isolation.
“Give me six hours,” Cap told Wolf. “I need to check into the sprinkler system, flooding protocols, who would be called in for demolition and reconstruction. Plus fill out the permits online.” He groaned beneath his breath. “So many fucking permits.” He pushed back his chair and shot Wolf a chin lift. “I’ll let you know when I’ve got something we can work with.”
Wolf nodded, but didn’t push his chair back. Instead, he turned the seat until it faced hisjavaanee. “Aiden, last night, when theTaounahawalked your dreams...when he spoke of theNeealaho,did he speak of other things? Did he foretell the location of our captive’s dead and undead, or our females’ spirit animals?”
Aiden’s head slowly rose. Shook still rimmed his eyes.
“No,” his voice was hoarse. Lurching to his feet, he stumbled out of the room.
The squid was not taking Benioko’s revelation well.
By the time O’Neill shoved his chair back and rose to his feet, Aiden was already out the door. O’Neill scratched his chin absently, watching the dude’s broad back disappear.
He didn’t have anything on his schedule until Muriel and Gracie arrived—he glanced at the clock on the wall—in an hour. PT was off the table, since he’d promised his daughter he’d work out with her, followed by more weapons training. Even with the self-defense lesson, he’d promised Muriel he’d be done before Cap reconvened the briefing.
He had an hour to kill. Might as well fill it with Winchester. Maybe Benioko had mentioned something the squid had forgotten...or wanted to forget.
But when he followed his target out of the war room, the dude was nowhere to be found.
Chapter fifty-five
Day 48
Shadow Mountain Base, Alaska
Aiden walked away from the war room in a daze.
When had his life spun off its axis? Had it been up in the hills above Karaveht as he’d watched his best friends annihilate each other in a burst of bullets, blood, and bone? He thought about that and shook his head. No. Not then.
As horrifying as those moments were, they’d been...recognizable. A familiarity he knew well. Sure, it was shaped by greed and horror. But that was the reality he lived in, the darkness he endured because of his career. God knew the world was full of psychopaths, monsters who put their ownwants ahead of others. Terrorists or cultists willing to kill anyone who stood in their way.
Cruelty...murder...selfishness...that reality was one he recognized.
But the reality he’d stepped into when he walked through the cafeteria doors...? That warped... fucked up.., deja vu of a reality...? That was not familiar. It wasn’t his reality. It wasn’t the truth he lived in...or lived with.
